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AIRCRAFT BOARDING EQUIPMENT FOR PASSENGERS IN WHEELCHAIRS

This report reviews the current practice in air travel for persons who use wheelchairs. The report considers the travel process as being composed of individual links in a chain of events which must be successfully negotiated before the trip will be completed. For the wheelchair traveler, the connection between the links often entails a transfer, and this is where special problems are encountered. On a typical trip, starting at check-in and arriving at baggage claim, a typical wheelchair passenger must be physically transferred two to six times, depending on type of aircraft. The report notes current limitations with using the passenger's own wheelchair, the carrier's terminal chair, and the carrier's on-board chair, as well as the lack of technology to transfer passengers to and from seats. The report recommends several ways of alleviating these problems by reducing the number of transfers required and by introducing new technologies.